Now that my trilogy is done, I'm trying to expand my sales on the non-Bookapy site. Can anyone advise me lock screen ads verses other types and what a decent per click bid is for a sci/fi novel? Also, does the minimum budget of $100 generate decent returns? If your uncomfortable discussing here, mail me. Thanks.
I suggest you PM Switchblayde and Crumbly Writtr as they're the only ones I know of who may have spent money on advertising and got some benefit. In the past a few people have mentioned using paid advertising and not getting a return benefit of enough to cover the costs.
Selling via Bookapy, Lulu, patreon, and Amazon may be your best bet.
I do know that Wes Boyd and Greg Younger found it more beneficial to spend the money on creating their own nice looking websites and selling through them.
Fair warning: no experience with ads for SF, so can't help with what's a good bid.
Based on experience (mine and my spouse's) with Facebook and Amazon ads, for a commercial genre like SF $100 sounds likely to generate minimal returns. Spouse started getting good sales on YA-with-adult-crossover only with much higher spends — they're currently spending per month about $4k to get $8k, after a nice Xmas boom. Only the self-pub reprint of their only actual bestseller has been done particularly well at this, though.
Non-commercial genres, lower spends give more traction but with returns only a little better than no ads at all, that I've seen.
From my discussions on wattpad with authors who treat publishing as a business and invest in editors, cover designers, formatters, and marketing, they all say don't spend a dime on advertising until you have a minimum of 3 books published. It's simply not worth it.
Books sell books.
I decided to experiement. A week after my first post I set up a campaign for a lock screen ad on Amazon. I set my first round of bits at 4 cents. No views were recorded for the first week so that was too low. Every week I raised the bid and today, after almost two months, I set it at .40 per page swipe. (I pay if someone sees the ad and swipes it to investigate.) So, so far no one has swiped it or my bid is still too low to generate a lock screen display.
I'll probably keep raising the bid until I start getting views. I do have a trilogy so if I can get a reader to buy book one I should have a fair chance of selling all three so I can gamble on a higher bid. We will see. I'm leaning that Amazon lock screen ads are not the best way for a beginning author. So far word of mouth and Bookapy are the big winners.
I set up a campaign for a lock screen ad on Amazon. I set my first round of bits at 4 cents.
I never advertised, but remember authors on wattpad talking about advertising on Amazon. But I don't remember the term "lock screen ad" and I don't remember them saying they set a price for the ad.
What I remember them saying was that there was a cost to you for someone clicking on your ad and you set a maximum you are willing to spend per day.
I have no idea what the cost of the ad is, but let's say for this example it's 10 cents. So you set a maximum you're willing to spend per day at $1. So after 10 people click on your ad (10 cents x 10 = $1), the ad is no longer available that day.
It sounds like a lock screen ad is different.
I have no idea what the cost of the ad is, but let's say for this example it's 10 cents. So you set a maximum you're willing to spend per day at $1. So after 10 people click on your ad (10 cents x 10 = $1), the ad is no longer available that day.
Amazon has various types of ads, but the most common is as you describe, except rather than 10 cents, it's usually hundredths of cents but you purchase large quantities. But it's essentially the same as you're describing.
However, I'm not sure what a lock screen is, as to me, 'lock screen' sounds suspiciously like a pop-up, which essentially locks the screen until you click an action. Though, knowing to rapidly advertising changes its terms, it could mean virtually anything.
I thought a lock screen ad was one appearing on the lock screen of a physical Kindle.
I thought a lock screen ad was one appearing on the lock screen of a physical Kindle.
Ahh, that explains it, since I don't personally own a Kindle, I've never even considered a device-specific ads, rather I go for Switch's 'view adds', where you pay/view by paying a set, incremental price.
you can try contacting Banadin through his sol email. He sells his Rick Jackson series on amazon and is apparently do very well. Just a thought...
SS
thankfully, he also pre-posts new RJ books to Bookapy for a brief period to allow SOL fans to obtain a copy before posting them with Amazon.
thankfully, he also pre-posts new RJ books to Bookapy for a brief period to allow SOL fans to obtain a copy before posting them with Amazon.
Why doesn't he keep them on both? Does he enroll in Kindle Unlimited?
From his blog ...
2. The Richard Jackson Saga Book 11: Interesting Times is now up on Amazon both for sale and in Kindle Unlimited, this means I have to pull it from Bookapy.
From his blog ...
2. The Richard Jackson Saga Book 11: Interesting Times is now up on Amazon both for sale and in Kindle Unlimited, this means I have to pull it from Bookapy.
Technically, Kindle Unlimited is generally a limited time only, so he should preserve the Bookapy html file and once the story comes off of Kindle Unlimited (once the initial sales drop off) he could always restore it for his longterm SOL fans.
Though recently, many authors post to Kindle Unlimited and NEVER remove it, leaving it up indefinitely. :(
thankfully, he also pre-posts new RJ books to Bookapy for a brief period to allow SOL fans to obtain a copy before posting them with Amazon.
I was wondering what that was about. Now I know!
Thanks.
A few days ago I raised my view bid to .40 cents per page view and now my ad is finally being shown. Over the past two days it has been displayed about 1200 times. No one clicked on the ad to inquire about the book so I have not actually spent anything yet. If they do, then I have to pay the .40 cents per click-through. My campaign is set to run until the end of the year and currently had a maximum budget of $150. I'll keep you all up to date on any sales and the ratio of clicks verses displays.
A few days ago I raised my view bid to .40 cents per page view and now my ad is finally being shown. Over the past two days it has been displayed about 1200 times. No one clicked on the ad to inquire about the book so I have not actually spent anything yet. If they do, then I have to pay the .40 cents per click-through. My campaign is set to run until the end of the year and currently had a maximum budget of $150. I'll keep you all up to date on any sales and the ratio of clicks verses displays.
Thanks, that's helpful. But typically, you need to target those adds, typically by searching out similar stories and pairing the adds to those specific books, so each time those books appear, your adds ("Similar to ...") will too, so you'll get the 'add on' sale overflow.
Hint: I did the research, but since my books an so unlike those of the mainstream publishers, I could never find anything even remotely like my own books to attach my adds to.
Essentially, once you find those similar books. you link your ad to theirs, and also add their keywords to your book too, for maximum visibility.
Thanks for the tips. I will have to try those on my next try.
As far as an update on the general lock screen ad campaign.
The current bid is set at .50 per click-thru. May-June my book was displayed 8800 times. 15 people clicked on it and 0 sales. Total cost so far is $5.60 (some clicks came during lower bid periods).
I'll probably let it run another month and cut the campaign short and try something different.
Thanks for the tips. I will have to try those on my next try.
As far as an update on the general lock screen ad campaign.
It's been a long time since I've done it (so long that all my 'associate sales' sites no longer work), but I once had access to a site where you'd post one story, and the book would draw links to every other story linked to yours, based on readers who purchased them.
Thus, you'd either list a book somewhat like yours, or list your own book, observe what your readers also purchased (or at least visited after viewing your books, and then used those to target your adds. After all, there's no sense linking your book to a story that only one fan read, but one that a majority of your readers liked, that's also selling millions of copies, that's one that's worth sinking some bucks into.
However, the easiest way to do this is with Amazon keyword searches. Simply search for books based on each keyword you select, and it'll list how often the keywords are used, as there's little sense if promoting SEO keywords that no one will ever type in a global search. Then, once you have the list of optimal keywords, simply type them all in a identify the top 20 books which match those same keywords, filtered by your specific genre.
But with sites increasingly cracking down of online marketing, the older tools are often no longer available to directly track which books are most directly related to yours, so now it's once again mostly a crap shoot!
But the key terms are "Sponsored ads", tied to other, more successful books that are similar to yours, and "Lockscreen ads", which are more typically tied to specific SEO keywords (ex: "lesbian goth mysteries", "steampunk" or "disgraced ex cop").
Lockscreen ads in particular are good, as they'll specifically list books with the tagline "Like so and so author? You'll love this." Unfortunately, Lockscreen ads ONLY appear when someones actually enters a site and then searches by keyword, which not a lot of authors bother to do.
P.S. While direct ads never worked particularly well for me, what did were associate sales, which I mentioned in my other response to you. In those cases, you add a link to a story containing your ID, and whenever someone visits your site, and then subsequently purchases another book, you'll earn a portion of that sale. As far as I know, the only sites which still support that are 'the Big "A"' and SW. However, it also helps if you then list similar books on your own websites, to help 'guide' your readers to those authors who are most like your stories.
It's a somewhat underhanded way of earning income, since it's NOT based on your writing, but as it helps generate added income, it'll often help augment your existing sales.
Thanks for the knowledge. As far as the general lockscreen ad success, I was curious. A was supposed to have made them more targeted so they show on the devices of those who read similar books to what tags are in the advertised book.
But, I've had lock screen ads on my device for years and I can only think of a few times that I've even noticed them enough to click on them. Most times I just ignore them and that jives with the 8k displays my ad has verses only a dozen click-throughs. I think I will try sponsored ads next, possibly on facebook.